The average American has thousands of dollars in credit card debt and is annoyed by interest rates and minimum monthly payments. Of course, lenders aren’t present when purchases are made, and very few people decide to return these items when they get their credit card bill. Not to mention most people love the convenience of cashless transactions.

Yet when it comes to personal responsibility, many are all too eager to absolve themselves of blame and instead make a scapegoat of the credit card companies.

Similarly, many merchants and retailers have whined in recent years that the cost of accepting credit cards is too high. In addition to the costs of terminal units, they typically pay a fee on each transaction, known as an interchange fee, between 1 and 2 percent of the cost of the purchase.

While these businesses are more than happy to accept credit cards – along with their increased sales, security and guaranteed payments – the notion that a credit card company would like to earn back some of the billions of dollars invested in technology, service personnel and shouldering financial risk is ludicrous to some.

Give me a break.

I own and operate Garden Grove Storage, a large self-storage facility here in Orange County. Just like the big, bad credit-card companies, we are in business to make a profit. We do not provide space and services as charity.

To be sure, interchange fees cut into my revenue; but then again, a great deal of my revenue is made possible by credit cards. You see, many of the people who are in need of storage space are relocating or perhaps remodeling a home or in some other transitional phase. Often times these circumstances effect their cash flow and credit cards are the one thing they can rely on to carry them through their transition.

And that fact also carries them to me, because we accept credit cards. If we did not, one of our competitors surely would and undoubtedly run us out business. The consumer wins in the end, because we provide a better service when they need it most. And the minuscule cut I have to pay for interchange fees is like water off a duck’s back as long as I have lots and lots of happy customers.

Some politicians have called for investigations into credit-card fee practices and claim they are sticking up for the little guy. But government interference and price controls don’t work. That’s a fact. Just ask jurisdictions that outlawed ATM fees and found that while their citizens saved a buck here or there, banks didn’t find much use in paying for expensive machines and service that doesn’t make them any money; ATMs disappeared.

The same could happen with credit cards.

Take away interchange fees, and risk throwing a huge monkey wrench in the nation’s economy by crippling a retail sector that depends on the types of purchases folks make with credit cards. Think of the chilling effect this could mean for jobs and consumer confidence. How would our grandstanding politician explain that?

The role of government is not to interfere with the free marketplace. It is inappropriate for politicians to tell businesses how much to charge for a product or service.

Government should keep its hands off of one of the most reliable parts of our economy and retailers should take responsibility and determine individually whether or not the credit card pricing structure makes sense for them.